


Adventures in Real Estate

by Idle_Hans



Series: Pocket Universities [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, world-building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:22:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24854530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idle_Hans/pseuds/Idle_Hans
Summary: Some things used to be a lot easier before accurate maps.
Series: Pocket Universities [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1798099
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	Adventures in Real Estate

Harry walked into the Great Hall for Sunday breakfast. It was early enough that the four long tables were still nearly empty, especially Gryffindor. But, as he glanced around, Harry spotted Hermione and Neville sitting at one end of the Ravenclaw table, along with a small assortment of Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and Ravenclaw students, all taking advantage of the informal seating permitted on weekends.

As he approached in order to say good morning to his housemates, his ear was caught by the words, "We will have new places to live. My cousin work for Chernobyl Reclamation Project."

"What?", exclaimed Harry, and he realised that Hermione and at least one muggle-born Ravenclaw had said exactly the same thing at the same time. He sat down beside Neville as the Durmstrang student resumed speaking.

"Chernobyl is town in north of Little Russia near border of White Russia. Eight years ago muggle factory catch fire and burn for many days. Poison from smoke spread north, east, west, for miles around. Slow poison, last for many years in ground and water and trees. Magic can vanish it easily; muggles cannot. Muggle government declares all people living nearby must leave and not return. Grand Council of Mages see great opportunity! Nothing like this since death forty years ago of muggle Lord Steel of All Russias, who many, many times declare all land around secret city or secret prison must disappear from maps. So muggles leave, mages arrive. Muggle soldiers patrol border of zone; no one may cross. Inside that, just out of sight, mages set up keep-out wards and notice-not wards and all other kinds of magic for hidden places. Weak at first because of huge size to be protected but make stronger with each year. My cousin is doing this."

The Durmstrang student stopped to take a swig of coffee, and one of the Ravenclaws asked, "So no muggles go there at all now?"

"In part of zone, muggles still come and go every day, visit burned factory and empty towns. But just outside towns, just beyond edge of road in and out, wards in place all around. Also, enchantments in muggle places of government to keep from changing mind. Just last year, muggles declared full area to be one thousand square miles, including factory and towns. In time, babushki and dedushki who refuse to leave villages die of old age, work at factory to contain poison will be complete, not even muggle scholars sent by government to measure poison will have enough purpose to push beyond strong wards, and nine hundred square miles of good land will belong to mages. We vanish poison, we clean up muggle mess. Thirty, fifty years perhaps, we settle and build."

Hermione spoke up then, using what Harry recognised as her Attempting–to–be–Diplomatic–in–the–Face–of–Wizarding–Egregiousness manner, "So wizards will just .... annexe a whole chunk of Ukraine and Belorussia, permanently?"

The Durmstrang student — Harry thought his name might be Poliakoff — shrugged.

"We do not _steal_ this land; is muggle scholars who tell governments all people must leave and not return. We charm governments only to believe warnings, and be content with what _they_ have done, so decision does not change. Only way to reclaim land from muggles without trouble is if they leave of own choice and have no strong purpose to come back. Only then are wards strong enough to keep muggles away without breaking Statute of Secrecy."

Hermione still looked affronted, so one of the senior Ravenclaws jumped in to head off an international incident.

"It happens here in Britain, too, just not in any planned manner. That's how places like Godric's Hollow and Ottery St. Catchpole came to be wizarding communities."

"But Hogsmeade is the only all-wizarding village in Great Britain, isn't it?"

Harry was quietly proud of Hermione that she expressed that as a question and not a declaration.

"Not exactly," offered Neville quietly, "it's the only _official_ wizarding village."

"Quite," said the Ravenclaw. "Hogsmeade is the only all-wizarding village recognised and enforced as such by the Ministry, because it's the only one that was founded on land already in wizarding hands and hidden behind wards, so it has _never_ appeared on any muggle map, or in any muggle book."

"Even Longbottom Hall, how much land it has, and its approximate location, are mentioned in the Domesday Book," said Neville.

"You've heard of the Domesday Book?", asked Hermione, staring at the sacred twenty-eighted pureblooded Neville in tactless astonishment.

"Gran owns a copy. Also the seventh-century Senchus fer nAlban, in which Hogwarts and Hogsmeade do _not_ appear," retorted Neville calmly.

 _Point to Neville_ , thought Harry, who decided it was his turn to speak. "So what happens to make places like Godric's Hollow and Ottery St. Catchpole unofficial wizarding villages?"

"When such things happen in France, it is an effect of the International Statute of Secrecy," said a Beauxbatons student. "Under the statute, and all the national laws which implement it locally, a witch or wizard taking up residence in a place is not only permitted — but positively encouraged — to surround the property with anti-muggle enchantments."

"Same here," interjected the Ravenclaw. "Notice-Me-Nots, Approach-Me-Nots, Mention-Me-Nots, Forget-Me-Quicks, there's a whole list of recommended protections."

" _Oui_ ," affirmed the Beauxbatons student. "But unless you have a high wall or a large estate or your protections are placed by a master enchanter, such wards must necessarily reach beyond the borders of your own domain in order to have the required effect upon neighbours and passers-by. Otherwise, there is no protection from the eyes and ears and tongue of the person outside your fence. For the _sans-magique_ , repeated exposure to such enchantments can have a cumulative secondary effect."

"Any muggle who need not use the road past your house will take to using an alternative path in the belief that it's the better route," said the Ravenclaw. "Your immediate neighbours if their house is close enough — which in a village it usually is — will suffer the gentle but constant feeling they'd be happier living somewhere else. If they do relocate, or when they eventually die, the place has a good chance of staying empty unless someone is half-desperate, or commits to moving there sight unseen, because all those who do come to inspect it will experience the same pervading sense that the place is just not for them."

"But if by chance or gossip, a fellow witch or wizard learns of this empty house near to yours," continued the Beauxbatons student, "they will not be made by your anti-muggle enchantments to feel unwelcome, and the landlord or vendor may well be happy to accept whatever price is offered for this empty dwelling that no-one else wants. And when your new neighbour places protections similar to yours about _their_ home, the effect on _les sans-magiques_ is more than doubled. If both sides of the same stretch of road are thus ensorcelled, passers-by other than those who have done it all their lives will never use that road a second time. Many will not remember the road is there at all."

"It takes several generations," said Neville, "but any small muggle village where more than two or three wizarding households become established in key locations will either stagnate and dwindle away to nothing; or else become almost entirely populated by witches, wizards, and the descendants of squibs who inherit a partial immunity. Usually the first is what happens."

A new voice came from directly behind Harry. Ginny had arrived and was taking an interest in the conversation.

"Ottery St. Catchpole does have a section on the main road that's muggle, but the road to Stoatshead Hill crosses a stream and then runs between land owned by the Fawcetts on one side and the Diggorys on the other, so the muggles all think that's a private lane and don't realise that more than half the houses in the village are beyond. Also, well.... no-one ever talks about it because of Dad working at the Ministry — and now Percy even more so," added Ginny, "but the underside of the bridge across the stream has a whole lot of moss-covered runes that I think are another set of anti-muggle charms, although Luna says they're to keep trolls away."

It was the Ravenclaw's turn again. "Whereas Godric's Hollow — where I live — used to have five roads leading in and out once upon a time, but three are now long since completely overgrown at the point where they used to connect to the outside world, and the other two have wizard-owned — and thoroughly warded — fields and woods on both sides of the lane all the way to where they join the roads that muggles use. Outsiders travelling past the turnoffs to Godric's Hollow normally don't even notice them, much less attempt to use them. At least three-quarters of the village are wizardfolk, and the rest are squibs, squib-descendants, muggles whose families have lived there for so many centuries they're sort of honorary squibs, and even the occasional family of a muggle-born. So there are cars and muggle shops and other businesses, but the whole place is utterly soaking in Tacitus Charms and magic is _unofficially_ free to be almost an open secret there. Just don't tell the Ministry, please. Ever.

"The point is, Ottery St. Catchpole, Godric's Hollow, Upper Portree and the like are all to be found on muggle maps, even if the details are well out of date. And although genuine outsiders are hardly more likely to show up in Stoatshead Road or Bagshot Lane than they are in Diagon Alley, the measures to make it completely impossible have never been set in place, because the days when wizardfolk could safely make a known place completely vanish from muggle sight and not arouse suspicion are long gone."

"Except during reign of Lord Steel," declared Poliakoff.

" _Oui_ ," offered the Beauxbatons student with a gallic shrug. "In this, _le monde magique_ envied the Grand Council of the Russias."

"Lord Steel?", whispered Harry to Hermione.

"Stalin, I think," she replied.

"Oh," said Harry. "You know, if Binns talked about things like this occasionally, I'd pay a lot more attention in History of Magic. Someone pass the pumpkin juice, please?"

**Author's Note:**

> In the muggle world, of course, Russia and Ukraine are now separate countries which are not on the best of terms. But I doubt that magical governments copy every shift and change in muggle international borders with any particular alacrity. Or changes of name. This, no doubt, annoys some people on both sides of the Statute of Secrecy.
> 
> I do apologise to anyone I may have offended.


End file.
